Hallelujah
by Hikan
Summary: Nokama and Matau are happily engaged. But when a mysterious stranger enters the Toa Metru of Water's life, she must make a difficult decision... VakamaNokamaMatau fic. Song is Hallelujah by Leonard Cohen.


_I heard there was a secret chord  
That David played and it pleased the lord  
But you don't really care for music, do ya?_

Turaga Matau sat back in the reed chair of his hut in Le-Koro and sighed in frustration. Clutched in his small hands was an ornately-carved harp made of ash and maple, and it was this one object alone that was causing him grief this lazy summer afternoon.

There was one tune that the Turaga of Air had been struggling to remember for a good half-hour or so, and what made him so aggravated was that it was so simple, so easy to remember. After all, all the songs celebrating the Great Spirit Mata Nui were...

He frowned in contemplation, and then began strumming the taut strings of the harp slowly. Perhaps if he just played, then the melody would come to him...

_Well, it goes like this: the fourth, the fifth  
The minor chord, the major lift  
A baffled king composing  
Hallelujah_

As the Turaga's fingers moved across the strings gently, a melody that had been hidden in the harp for centuries, like a Gukko chick concealed within an egg, began to emerge, and Matau found himself swept up in visions of a time and place far beyond his reach...

_Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah _

Well, your faith was strong but you needed proof  
You saw her bathing on the roof  
Her beauty and the moonlight overthrew you

Matau headed up the mosaic stone pathway dragging a suitcase with many of his belongings to the front door of the residence he shared with his fiancée, Nokama, on a quiet man-made lake in Ga-Metru.

Upon entering the house, the Toa of Air looked around excitedly for the love of his life. He had been gone for an extra day on that impromptu Vehicle Design Seminar in Le-Metru- he had proudly been promoted to vehicle designer several months ago- and was extremely eager to see Nokama again. Perhaps she was having a drink on the front deck, and he had merely missed her in his hurry to get inside...

As he sat down at the kitchen table, Nokama came downstairs wearing the pale blue bathrobe that was customary for her to wear in the mornings. Pausing when she noticed the viridian-skinned Toa sitting at the table, she looked at Matau with soft orange eyes that seemed to possess a hint of fear in their amber depths.

"Hello, sweetheart!" exclaimed Matau, standing up and laughing. "I'm back."

Nokama hastily went over to the Toa of Air and embraced him with a projected sense of warmth. However, Matau sensed a slight worry in the body of his fiancée, and immediately frowned.

"Nokama, what's wrong? What's-"

Then his expression became one of fury and bewilderment all at once, for from behind Nokama's shoulder he could see a fiery red Toa descend the stairs wrapped in an emerald bathrobe that clearly was the viridian Toa's own.

"Nokama," he said softly, "would you care to tell me exactly why a stranger has just descended the stairs from our bedroom into our kitchen wearing my bathrobe?"

Nokama broke away sharply. "Wh... what?" she asked nervously. "I, um... I don't know this man."

Matau sighed and looked Nokama straight in the eyes while sitting down in the chair he had left. "Nokama, tell me the truth."

The Toa of Water sighed. "Fine, then. I'll tell you. Last night, Vakama here-" she indicated the red Toa standing at the foot of the stairs with a bewildered look on his face "-came to our front door. His, um, his girlfriend, Fuella, had dumped him, and since he knew me from the Workers' Union of Metru-Nui meetings, he found our address in the members' book and found his way here. I took him in, and-"

"Couldn't you have shooed him off? Told him to find another person to commiserate with, perhaps?" Matau asked in a steely yet pleasant voice.

"It was raining, and- and he was crying!" cried Nokama. "Anyways, I said he could stay the night at our place, and since you weren't here, I told him we could share the master bedroom. I-"

"WHY DID YOU LET HIM SLEEP IN THE MASTER BEDROOM?!" bellowed Matau, standing, kicking away the chair and striding over to Nokama, all attempts at pleasantry abandoned. "COULDN'T THE GUEST BEDROOM HAVE SUFFICED?"

"Yes, well..." Nokama was trembling as she spoke. "There was another reason I let Vakama do what he did. You see, Matau... I love him."

Then she walked over to Vakama and gave him a kiss.

_Well, she tied you to your kitchen chair  
She broke your throne, she cut your hair  
And from your lips she drew  
Hallelujah_

Matau's jaw dropped as he stared at Nokama as if she had just sucked all the joy and happiness of his life right out of his lips. And although he wanted to hurt Vakama badly for what he had done to his darling Nokama, he felt frozen to the spot, as if someone had wrapped his entire body in heavy iron chains and manacled his ankles and wrists.

"Well then," he said softly after an eternity of silence, "I guess I'll pack up and go, then."

"NO!" cried Nokama.

"Well," said Matau in that same soft voice, struggling to keep his emotions in check, "if you really love Vakama, then where does that leave me, then?"

He paused. "Oh, and you can have this back, seeing as I won't need it anymore," he said in a slightly louder tone, slipping the ring Nokama had given him two years ago off his finger and onto the floor, where it fell with a sharp metallic ring.

Then he started for the stairs, dragging his suitcase behind him.

_Baby, I've been here before  
I've seen this room and I've walked this floor  
Used to live alone before I knew you_

Matau walked into the bedroom he shared with Nokama, the bedroom they had lived in, laughed in, slept in for so many years. Casting his eyes over the pictures on the night table of him and Nokama, he unlocked his suitcase and dropped them all in.

Then, after visiting the ensuite bathroom to take any toiletries he might have left while preparing for the seminar, Matau paused and looked at the bed. Should he take anything from it? A pillow, perhaps?

Matau shook his head in disagreement. No. It was Nokama and Vakama's bed now, and after what the two had presumably done in it he was glad to give it up.

_But I've seen your flag on the marble arch  
Oh, love is not a victory march  
It's a cold and broken  
Hallelujah_

For the bed was another thing touched by Vakama; another flag hoisted on the conquered castle of the house- and woman- he loved.

Sighing deeply, Matau headed back downstairs and left the house without another word.

_Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah _

Maybe there's a god above  
But all I ever learned from love  
Was how to shoot somebody who outdrew ya

As soon as he was outside, Matau sat on the doorstep and sobbed, his hands covering his face.

"Why, Mata Nui," he lamented. "Why? Why did you have to make me fall in such sweet love only to cause me pain and suffering in the end?"

Then he stood up and began walking down the path just as it began to rain, and so a soaked, miserable, heartbroken Matau walked away into the distance underneath a sky full of tears.

_It's not a cry that you hear at night  
It's not someone who's seen the light  
It's a cold and broken  
Hallelujah _

Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah  
Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah,

Hallelujah...


End file.
